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The Strange World Of Productivity Set Up Videos

Whilst putting the world to rights on the Outline podcast, Daryl asked me if I am ever happy with my set up. Of course the answer is no! I am never happy and constantly try and improve my productivity and set up. This invariably leads me down a rabbit hole and into the very weird world of productivity set up videos.

At first glance this seems very normal, a glimpse into the world of getting things done and streamlining the way you go about things. I’ve watched hundreds of these videos and on the surface they appear exactly this. Yet after a while you come to realise just how strange the productivity world is.

There are thousands of hours of video on Youtube explaining how people set up their apps. Millions of people out there must be exactly like me and are never satisfied with their set up, yearning to get more out of it.

It would come as no surprise to me that in fact most of the people that watch these videos simply suffer from a fear of missing out. Missing inspiration for making their productivity better, when in truth most of the videos are the same. I once watched a whole series of videos of different people offering their Todoist set up with very few differences.

Why did I watch so many? Simply because they were successful people and they must hold a golden nugget of information to make me successful to, right? I kept waiting for the one tip to all of a sudden mean I can get more work done and become a productivity wizard. Getting more things ticked off my task list means I’m going to become successful like these people – right?

I feared missing out on that one tips so I delved in deeper and deeper. Listened to podcast after podcast, watched video and video. Trawled Reddit for tips and ticks, used multiple apps because I couldn’t decide which one was best and ultimately wasted ridiculous amounts of time.

It’s a weird world productivity advice – and I couldn’t find anything useful.